1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printer, and, more particularly, to a method of informing a user of the end of life of a consumable for an ink jet printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink jet printer typically has associated therewith a consumable, such as for example, an ink supply tank or an ink jet cartridge, that contains a supply of ink that is consumed during an imaging process. During the imaging process, ink is selectively ejected from a plurality of nozzles in a printhead to form a printed image. Eventually, the ink supply is exhausted. In either event, the consumer may be inconvenienced by an untimely exhaustion of the ink supply of the consumable. By providing a notice to the consumer of the upcoming exhaustion of the ink supply, provisions can be made in advance of the exhaustion of ink for replacing or refilling the consumable.
One such method of providing such a notice to the user is to notify the user of the reduced ink that remains in the consumable, such as, for example, by reducing the density of a printed image. In one known implementation of this method, the duration of a preheat pulse applied to a heater in the printhead is changed so as to affect the amount of ink expelled from the associated nozzle. By shortening the preheat pulse, the size of the expelled ink drop is reduced, thereby decreasing the density of the printed image. Another approach is to change to a draft mode from another printing mode when a certain ink level is reached to thereby reduce the recording pixel numbers.
What is needed in the art is a method of informing a user of the end of life of a consumable for an ink jet printer, that does not require a change in the pulse width of a preheat pulse nor a changeover to a draft mode from another printing mode.